explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3009: Number Shortage

2024-11-16T00:11:34Z

172.68.210.33: No political comment please!

I bet there's plenty of 9s left. They obviously didn't get a proper range of digits at Benford's Discount Number Store. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.113|172.69.195.113]] 05:53, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
:There are so many 9s because they get used the least on microwaves. [[User:N-eh|N-eh]] ([[User talk:N-eh|talk]]) 22:27, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
:I expect pricing psychology uses up most of the 9's that Benford stocks, using the first-in-last-out method.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.119|162.158.159.119]] 21:06, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

Is this not an error? "15 2s and 12 3s" uses up one 3. So shouldn't it next be 11 3s left, not 10? -- [[Special:Contributions/172.69.144.152|172.69.144.152]] 10:41, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
: No - they started with fifteen 2s and twelve 3s. They used two 2s saying '15 '''2'''s and 1'''2''' 3s' which leaves thirteen 2s. They used two 3s saying ...12 '''3'''s / No wait, 1'''3''' 2s...' which leaves ten 3s. However, by the next line they still have nine 3s (having used up one saying '... and 10 '''3'''s') - not eight, as the explanation previously said.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.134|172.70.160.134]] 17:06, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

the consequences of our actions /ref [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 10:45, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

The above mentioned “error” is not an error. When she says there are 13 2s left, that uses up one 3. [[User:PedanticMan|PedanticMan]] ([[User talk:PedanticMan|talk]]) 11:13, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

: There's no pause, no "No wait" after "13 2s". Is she reevaluating numbers instantly realtime midsentence? Did she start the sentence planning to say one thing and instantly altered it partway through? I guess that's what Randall is going for. -- [[Special:Contributions/172.69.144.162|172.69.144.162]] 12:00, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
::That's what I assumed, and I already included it in the explanation. But I'm not sure if the title text is consistent with that interpretation. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:35, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
:::Title text is perhaps semi-consistent. Regardless of what was said/used beteen "ten minutes ago" and now, the statement (ten minutes ago) of "2 0s" used one zero. The statement (now) of "10 minutes ago" used another and ''technically'' used a third (but it could be considered recycled from the original statement being quoted).
:::Whichever way the counting works (and presuming that any quotable re-use principle doesn't allow just "Ns" to be requoted as "X Ns" in a way that preserves the N stock even whilst depleting Xs), we're certainly down to the stage where we can no longer say there are "0" of something, nor that the something involved is the 0s.
:::...to put it another way, a different TT might be "10 minutes ago we were down to only 2 ... oh darnit!". But that wouldn't have made itself quite so obvious (the Ns could have been 0, 1 or 2). I suppose having 3 0s ten minutes ago might only have led to the necessity of that logic being explained (then: "3 0s {0s=>2}"; now: "10 minutes {0s=>1} .. 3 0s {0s=>0}" "now?" " {0s=>0 ∴ unable to even begin to answer} "), however...
:::But, much like the TT question posed, wise use of "them”/etc might be useful in ''some'' (not-title text) circumstances. "I earlier said there were 9 9s, but now there are 7 of them. ...still 7. Yep, definitely 7 of them! (7s, on the other hand are now...)", vs. "there were 9 9s, but now there are 7 9s. 6 9s! 5 9s! <...> 1 9! <curses>" [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.114|172.69.195.114]] 12:19, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
::I believe the title text is clear. There where still 2 like there was when she checked ten minutes ago. She can only say the sentence because she still had those two left. But after it is not possible to day there are 0 0 left. And thus the Idk. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:43, 11 November 2024 (UTC)
::: Presumably the scenario that resulted in this was: There were three 0s remaining; Person A said "How many 0s do we have left?" (reducing them to two); Person B then said "2". If, instead, someone had said "We have only 2 0s left", that would have reduced them to one, leaving insufficient to complete the sentence in the title text.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.141|172.70.86.141]] 17:21, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

If anyone wants to see self-referentiality of numbers taken even further, here is a series of posts that I wrote on "self-describing numbers": https://atmos.warplight.dev/profile/1p8WCZnqqG6N3ZOsJxBgUTo/p1cNCw1OTsioTQBRk [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 12:09, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

the first stage of grief is denial [[user talk:lettherebedarklight|youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk]] 12:19, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
: So you saw that the Harris banner is still up too, eh? There may be no shortage of absolute numbers, but numbers of things, yeah, there are shortages. Like, chances to act to avert disaster, like weren't taken in 2016, and we got lucky ... [[Special:Contributions/172.68.23.92|172.68.23.92]] 17:37, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
::Just heard on Not The Bee that Trump is planning to help the Democrats out by paying Kamala's campaign debt at a rate of $10/mention in speeches over the past 180 days. Should be plenty to pay off the $20 million.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.75|172.71.142.75]] 21:02, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
::: [https://www.dude-n-dude.com/2024/11/05/amoebas-lorica-experimentum-finita/ When logic and proportion][https://www.dude-n-dude.com/2024/11/03/ai-elect/ have fallen sloppy dead], {{w|It_Can%27t_Happen_Here|remember}} {{w|White_Rabbit_(song)|what the dormouse said}}.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.30|172.71.142.30]] 05:48, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure "15" uses up one 3 (3*5) and "12" uses up two 2's and one 3 (2*2*3) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.222.213|172.71.222.213]] 15:09, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
:No, I think the "3s" in the first statement uses one, and the ones place of "13" referring to the number of 2s left in the second statement uses another. [[User:Laneymarie96|Laneymarie96]] ([[User talk:Laneymarie96|talk]]) 03:13, 10 November 2024 (UTC)

"Well? How many numbers do we have left?"
"Oh great! There's one more!"
(Yes, I know this goes against the logic of the original comic)
[[User:Turquoise Hat|Turquoise Hat]] ([[User talk:Turquoise Hat|talk]]) 17:36, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

Why don't we try using Roman numerals while we wait for the shortage to get fixed? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.135.53|172.69.135.53]] 04:05, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
:We could always go back gto tally marks...wait also who says this is Miss Lenhart? {{unsigned ip|172.68.70.56|12:41, 11 November 2024}}
::No one says it is her, since we (explain xkcd users) have named a character that looks like [[Blondie]] but who seems to be a teacher [[Miss Lenhart]]. This is taken from a couple of comics where a teacher is named and another where her name is used. In this case she works at the Math Department, presumably at a university thus she is likely a teacher there, and looks like Blondie, hence it is Miss Lenhart. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:51, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

Seems very related to the {{w|Look-and-say sequence}}! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.170.93|172.71.170.93]] 21:48, 10 November 2024 (UTC)Bumpf

Instead of having to say "I don't know" in the title text, one could just say "none". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.170|172.70.110.170]] 19:46, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
:It's funnier to imagine that they forgot how to articulate "zero" as a concept. [[User:Psychoticpotato|P?sych??otic?pot??at???o ]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 20:56, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
:By that logic, they could (partially) escape the "10 minutes ago 0s" issue by saying "ten minutes ago" and not depleting certain digits. Or, as it says "numbers", depleting 10s (but neither 1s nor 0s). But you have to consider if "one" is a "1" (also "a(n)", maybe), and if you can get away with "a couple of" or dozens, scores, grosses, ton(ne)s of, a "pony" or a "grand" or even a googol/googolplex. Then one (1s--) may won(1s--?)der what really ''are'' the uses to be strictly atone(1s--?)d for? Still, I've got 33×3 problems, but the number of 3²s aint one! (1s--). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.218|172.70.160.218]] 12:47, 10 November 2024 (UTC)

So, is this comic related to the Google incident? Google seems to be suffering from money '''shortage''' after being fined in large '''number'''s. [[User:CategoryGeneral|CategoryGeneral]] ([[User talk:CategoryGeneral|talk]]) 01:51, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
: ...no? Big leap in logic here. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.243|172.69.22.243]] 04:06, 10 November 2024 (UTC)

This one needs a nerd snipe warning! Anyone else get sniped with this one? [[User:Fephisto|Fephisto]] ([[User talk:Fephisto|talk]]) 14:02, 11 November 2024 (UTC)
:I'll let you know. I have only fifteen vowels left. No, nine. Or is it six? No, two. Grrrrr! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.135|172.70.160.135]] 15:39, 11 Nvmbr 2024 (TC)
::t's not hard t rtclt wtht vwls, tbh -[[User:Psychoticpotato|P?sych??otic?pot??at???o ]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 17:44, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

It's surprising they didn't run out of 0s and 1s well before the rest. I mean, we all know what those Computer Science types are like when you turn your back for a moment...[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.204|172.70.162.204]] 17:34, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

I have a backup supply of 615 2s, 172 3s, 68 5s, 216 1s, and 29 0s. No, wait [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.34|108.162.238.34]] 21:41, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

I don't have time for a response - TenGolf [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.77|108.162.238.77]] 21:34, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

This might be a reference to all the times where describing a situation, you change it. It's a common phenomena in psychology and macro economy.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.133|162.158.202.133]] 16:26, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

This is no place for political comment. At best, it's off-topic. I hesitate to suggest what is worst about it but a pretty undesirable effect is that it reveals something of the characters of contributors I might previously have thought of as rational thinkers.

2998: Ravioli-Shaped Objects

2024-11-05T06:01:42Z

172.68.210.33: /* Table of ravioli objects */

{{comic
| number = 2998
| date = October 14, 2024
| title = Ravioli-Shaped Objects
| image = ravioli_shaped_objects_2x.png
| imagesize = 608x569px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's a real accomplishment to mess up a ravioli recipe badly enough that the resulting incident touches all four quadrants of the NFPA hazard diamond.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Ravioli}} are a kind of stuffed {{w|pasta}} comprising a filling enveloped in thin pasta dough, commonly square shaped, and serving as the object of this comic's table, which can be seen as a kind of {{w|confusion matrix}}. This comic compares four ravioli-shaped objects (square shaped objects with bulging cross-sections due to their filling) with some common actions associated with them. See the [[#Table of ravioli objects|table]] below.

The title text refers to the {{w|NFPA 704}} diagram for hazardous materials, a diamond figure put out by the {{w|National Fire Protection Association}} showing four kinds of fire hazards. A {{wiktionary|raviolo}} that touched all four quadrants would be a health hazard, fire hazard, and demonstrate (chemical) reactivity, and have some other miscellaneous hazard(s). The NFPA diamond was previously mentioned in [[2638: Extended NFPA Hazard Diamond]].

===Table of ravioli objects===
{| class="wikitable" | style="background:#E6C3C3;"
! Ravioli-Shaped Objects
! scope="col"| Eat with a fork
! scope="col"| Rest your head on
! scope="col"| Puncture and slurp
! scope="col"| Install in your phone
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Ravioli}}
| style="background:#C5E6C3;"|Ravioli pasta would indeed be suitable to be eaten with a fork, as shown.
|Ravioli pasta is not structurally strong enough to support the weight of a human head while reclining, and would break and spill its filling over one's head and the object one is resting on. It may also be covered in sauce, adding to the general mess.
|style="background:#FBF8CE;"|If the ravioli filling is fluid enough, one could slurp it out with a straw. This would waste the pasta component, if it were not eaten afterwards.
|Phones are not meant to run on ravioli. Stuffing a phone with a raviolo would cause it to break as shown, spilling the filling through the phone, which is a terrible idea.

There is a mobile app named Ravioli, but it is quite unlikely that Randall had that in his mind.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Throw pillow}}
|Throw pillows are made of cloth and are inedible, whether one uses a fork or not.
| style="background:#C5E6C3;"|A throw pillow is meant to be used as head support while reclining on furniture.
|Throw pillows do not usually have liquids inside them. Hence, Cueball finds, to his dismay, that it's empty.
|Throw pillows are significantly bigger than phones and as such can't fit inside them, nor can typical pillows power them. As depicted, the attempt to force a pillow inside the phone has split the latter in half; the top half of the phone is visible on top of the pillow, and a bit of the bottom half can be seen beneath it.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Capri Sun}}
|Eating a pouch of sweetened juice with a fork would most likely simply pierce the pouch and spill the liquid all over Cueball.
|style="background:#FBF8CE;"|A Capri Sun would serve as a waterbed of sorts, and wouldn't be unduly uncomfortable in a pinch. However, it's still possible that the pouch could rupture and leave you with a sticky head and no support.
|style="background:#C5E6C3;"|Capri Suns are meant to be drunk like this, and are enjoyed by many.{{citation needed}}
|The phone shown is surrounded by spilled Capri Sun, implying that the attempt to force the two together punctured the pouch. The resulting spillage would most likely just result in the surface of the phone becoming annoyingly sticky, but if the liquid managed to get inside the phone (especially if the cover had been removed to try to put it in the compartment that usually holds the battery) it could cause a more significant and difficult to clean mess. Once actual power is provided (either an actual battery being subsequently used or the device offered external power by cable or inductance charger), the remaining residue could cause any number of further faults, and perhaps even critical component damage.
|-
! scope="row"| Bulging {{w|Lithium-ion battery|Lithium Battery}}
|Bulging lithium batteries are explosive hazards and should not be punctured lest they explode. Additionally the contents of the battery are toxic if one were to somehow manage to eat the burning bits of the battery.
|A lithium battery is a small, hard object, and a bulging one is no exception. Since the bulging comes from a buildup of heat and gas, (the primary gases being hydrogen and carbon dioxide), it would also be a constant fire hazard, which would not be conducive to relaxation.{{cn}} Lithium battery themed throw pillows, which bulge similarly to such batteries, do exist as a novelty item. Notably, these types of batteries are often referred to as "spicy pillows".
|Similarly to the 'eat with a fork' example, puncturing a bulging lithium battery is a bad idea{{fact}}.
|A bulging lithium battery ''could'' be installed in a phone, if one is willing to break the phone a bit (like the screen in the comic) to accommodate the bulging of the battery. More commonly, bulging batteries form inside the phone itself; if you don't usually have reason to charge or store it separately, you might only notice the problem when it causes the case or screen (shown as partly cracked, in the image) to distort significantly. In [[1422: My Phone is Dying]], [[Beret Guy]]'s phone is expanding. Although in his case it is not the normal bulging battery that causes this.
Upon noticing the bulging of a battery, it is strongly suggested that you uninstall it from the device it is in. It is at least no longer good at holding/delivering its power, and may even become at least as {{w|Lithium-ion battery#Fire hazard|hazardous}} as when used in all the other scenarios, so you should [https://www.reading.ac.uk/health-safety-services/fire-safety/lithium-battery-information/i-have-a-swollen-lithium-ion-battery-what-should-i-do ignore it at your peril].
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A 4x4 grid of squares. The columns are labeled: Eat with a fork, rest your head on, puncture and slurp, install in your phone. The rows are: Ravioli, throw pillow, Capri Sun, bulging lithium battery. Each row has an image of each respective item above the title, with the words “Home Sweet Home” on the throw pillow, and “Fruit” on the Capri Sun.]

Top-Left
:Ravioli, eat with a fork: [green]
::[Cueball sits on a chair in front of a table with a jar of sauce on it. He is eating from a plate from ravioli.]
::Cueball: ''Nom Nom Nom''

Top Mid-Left
:Ravioli, Rest your head on: [red]
::[Cueball is lying down on a couch with ravioli smooshed on his head and the couch. Ravioli bits can be seen on the ground]
::Cueball: Eww.

Top Mid-Right
:Ravioli, puncture and slurp: [yellow]
::[Cueball is slurping from a ravioli through a straw. In front of him is table with two plates, presumably with ravioli on them.]
::''Slurp''

Top-Right
:Ravioli, Install in your phone: [red]
::[A phone is shown with bits of ravioli sticking out and tomato sauce is dripping out.]

Top-Mid Left
:Throw pillow, eat with a fork: [red]
::[Cueball sits on a chair in front of a table with a jar of sauce on it. He is poking with a fork at a throw pillow covered in tomato sauce.]
::''Poke poke''

Top-Mid Mid-Left
:Throw pillow, rest your head on: [green]
::[Cueball is looking at his phone and is lying on a couch. His head is resting on a throw pillow.]

Top-Mid Mid-Right
:Throw pillow, puncture and slurp: [red]
::[Cueball is sucking on a straw that is inserted in a pillow.]
::Cueball: Aw man, this one is empty.

Top-Mid Right
:Throw pillow, install in your phone: [red]
::[A phone is shown on a throw pillow that has the words “Home Sweet Home” partially obscured.]

Bottom-Mid Left
:Capri Sun, eat with a fork: [red]
::[Cueball sits on a chair in front of a table with a jar of sauce on it. He has stabbed a Capri Sun on a plate and is now splattered with juice.]

Bottom-Mid Mid-Left
:Capri Sun, rest your head on: [yellow]
::[Cueball is looking at his phone and is lying on a couch. His head is resting on a Capri Sun.]
::Cueball: Honestly kind of comfortable.

Bottom-Mid Mid-Right
:Capri Sun, puncture and slurp: [green]
::[Cueball is drinking from a Capri Sun through a straw.]
::''Sluuurp''

Bottom-Mid Right
:Capri Sun, Install in your phone: [red]
::[A phone is shown to be squishing a Capri Sun. Juice is trickling out.]

Bottom Left
:Bulging lithium battery, eat with a fork: [red]
::[An explosion bordered by 4 skull and crossbones.]

Bottom Mid-Left
:Bulging lithium battery, rest your head on: [red]
::[Cueball is looking at his phone and lying on his couch. His head is resting on a smoldering battery.]
::Cueball: This fire hazard is uncomfortable.

Bottom Mid-Right
:Bulging lithium battery, puncture and slurp: [red]
::[An explosion bordered by 4 skull and crossbones.]

Bottom Right
:Bulging lithium battery, install in your phone: [red]
::[A phone with a bulging back, presumably from the bulging lithium battery. The phone’s screen is cracked in the center.]

==Trivia==
Surprisingly, the bottom right square was [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/4/4f/20241019165156%21ravioli_shaped_objects_2x.png initially marked in  green ] rather than  red  (or  yellow ) when it was first uploaded. This square may have been marked in green because, although putting a bulging battery in a mobile phone is not normal usage, it is a situation that can ''arise'' from normal usage when a "healthy" battery begins to fail. One other suggestion was that this was an [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd phone]], and a dodgy battery is part of a 'feature', such as an 'integrated hand warmer' or 'dynamic expansion').

More likely, it was just because Randall automatically went with the default association of "Row N is appopriate for Column N", as is his [[:Category:Confusion matrices|usual design]] for these comics, to which he adds adjustments for other surprises, exceptions and outright jokes.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Confusion matrices]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Phones]]
[[Category:Comics edited after their publication]]

2811: Free Fallin'

2023-08-06T08:30:43Z

172.68.210.33: The word "awhile" is not preceeded by "for"; "a while" is.

{{comic
| number = 2811
| date = August 4, 2023
| title = Free Fallin'
| image = free_fallin_2x.png
| imagesize = 546x376px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Their crash investigation team had some particularly harsh words for Dave Matthews.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Vampire on Ventura Boulevard - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The {{w|National Transportation Safety Board|National Transportation Safety Board}} (NTSB) issues reports on incidents involving various types of vehicles, including airplanes. In this comic, Randall suggests that due to an obscure law, the NTSB has to do a report if a song is downloaded to a {{w|Flight data recorder|flight data recorder}}. In this instance, the song used is the 1989 ballad {{w|Free Fallin'|''Free Fallin'''}} by {{w|Tom Petty|Tom Petty}}. Interpreting the song's lyrics as a description of an incident, the NTSB's report describes a flight over northern Los Angeles County, California. The pilot apparently takes off from his home in Reseda, gliding over Mulholland Drive, skywriting the name of his loved one, and then presumably either skydiving from the craft or turning off its power to achieve free fall. Assuming Tom Petty is the [amateur] solo pilot, either action would be a dangerous maneuver risking not only his vehicle but the lives of the civilians below, and quite possibly his own.

The title text refers to the 1996 song "Crash Into Me", off the Dave Matthews Band's second album, ''Crash''. The investigation team likely would not enjoy a song which reminds them of their job, even if it was referring to love instead of planes.{{Citation needed}}

Both songs were on heavy radio rotation when Munroe was a teenager, a time when many people make especially emotional connections to the popular music of their era.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Map item !! Corresponding ''Free Fallin''' lyric
|-
| Tom Petty home || And it's a long day livin' in Reseda
|-
| vampires || And all the vampires walkin' through the valley Move west down Ventura Boulevard
|-
| boys (bad) || And all the bad boys are standin' in the shadows
|-
| girls (good) (sad) || And the good girls are home with broken hearts
|-
| glide phase || I wanna glide down over Mulholland
|-
| skywriting incident || I wanna write her name in the sky
|-
| ? || I'm gonna free fall out into nothin' Gonna leave this world for a while I'm free fallin'
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[Map of {{w|San Fernando Valley|San Fernando Valley, California}}, with dotted line labeled “flight path” and several other features marked on and around the line:]

* Tom Petty home (in {{w|Reseda, Los Angeles|Reseda}})
* flight path (the dotted line)
* vampires (on {{w|Ventura Boulevard}}, with an arrow pointing west)
* boys (bad)
* girls (good) (sad)
* glide phase (over {{w|Mulholland Drive}})
* skywriting incident (near {{w|Van Nuys}}, loops in flight path)
*? (at end of flight path, near {{w|Burbank, California|Burbank}})

[In the top left of the map, the logo of the {{w|National Transportation Safety Board}} (NTSB)]

[Caption below the panel:] Due to an obscure law, if you download a song onto a flight data recorder and send it to the NTSB, they have to do a report on it.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

Talk:2784: Drainage Basins

2023-06-03T18:47:48Z

172.68.210.33:

For anyone else who didn’t recognize “Alex Mack” and was confused when the first result on Wikipedia was an American football player with seemingly no reference to the joke at hand, I’m pretty sure this is referencing “Alex Mack” from “The Secret Life of Alex Mack” which was a Nickelodeon TV show in the 1990s. One of their powers is turning into water.
:Thanks! [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.213|172.69.22.213]] 00:42, 3 June 2023 (UTC)
:I know of her by way of reading Diane Castle's work, The Secret Return of Alex Mack, which basically took over the Alex Mack fanfiction scene. Hadn't heard of the original until then. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.66.96|172.68.66.96]] 03:56, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

I need to point out: Turning into a puddle of liquid is not a superpower. Anyone can do that. Turning back into a solid human again afterwards is the tricky part. ~ [[User:Xxj|Xxj]] ([[User talk:Xxj|talk]]) 04:12, 3 June 2023 (UTC)
:I think turning into a puddle of liquid ''at will'' counts as a superpower. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.132|172.69.134.132]] 04:23, 3 June 2023 (UTC)
::Most things which a typical person does are typically done at will (other than breathing, sleeping, sneezing, and posting comments on the internet). ~ [[User:Xxj|Xxj]] ([[User talk:Xxj|talk]]) 04:52, 3 June 2023 (UTC)
:Found the editor who has never had to dispose of a body. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.138|172.69.134.138]] 08:48, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

Man I thought this was about the kid who jumped off the cruise ship on a dare this week and got pulled under, and was really weirded out that he would joke about that, really happy to see I was dead wrong. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.168.144|172.68.168.144]]

: he got a Darwin Award, not an XKCD comic [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.33|172.68.210.33]] 18:47, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

"approximately twice the volume of a typical human being"—that implies there was already a witch in the lake previously. After we add the wWotW, there are two dissolved witches. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.3|162.158.94.3]] 04:44, 3 June 2023 (UTC)
:It's Utah. On the basis of that alone, I'm surprised that there was only one. [[User:Vikinghelmet99|Vikinghelmet99]] ([[User talk:Vikinghelmet99|talk]]) 05:39, 3 June 2023 (UTC)
::The first witch was famously house-struck, not 'melted'. (Then sublimed, though ''perhaps'' condensed/redissolved off-screen the next time it rained.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.187|172.69.79.187]] 09:33, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

Oz is "famously not in Kansas" -- ha! Nicely done.

I didn't know what Drainage Basin was. I first thought it meant which ocean will come and cover this part of land if global warming continues. [[User:Memo Spike Connector|2503: Memo Spike Connector]] ([[User talk:Memo Spike Connector|talk]]) 06:33, 3 June 2023 (UTC)
:If it goes badly enough, that'd be the Neo-{{w|Panthalassic Ocean}}... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.8|172.70.86.8]] 09:13, 3 June 2023 (UTC)